‘Trans’ kids often change their minds

Is the big surge in “transgenderism among kids largely a fad?” asked Karol Markowicz. That’s the clear conclusion of a new study by the Netherlands’ University of Groningen of 2,700 children who were tracked from age 11 to 26. In early adolescence, 11 percent of the kids reported “gender non-contentedness”—wishing they could change genders. But the percentage who weren’t happy with their gender steadily declined as the kids got older, and by age 26, had declined to 4 percent. In other words, most grew out of it. That has major implications for the radical policy adopted by many American schools and medical institutions: Minors who declare themselves transgender need to be “affirmed” through puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Any parent or adult who objects to these medical interventions, which can cause permanent infertility and sexual dysfunction, is now deemed “a transphobe or worse.” The Dutch study found that of the kids with gender non-contentedness, most were girls with low self-esteem and depression; many were struggling with same-sex attraction. Becoming a boy, these girls thought, might fix them. The obvious takeaway “shouldn’t be controversial”: Don’t let unhappy children make irreversible decisions.